The invention relates to articulated modules and robotic assemblies incorporating them, particularly mannequins used for displays and demonstrations. Preferably, the modules are servo-articulated.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,767,901 discloses a digital animation graphics apparatus and methods. This appears to be the basic patent in the prior art since 1975.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,898,438 discloses a programmable method for digital animation apparatus for assembling animation data.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,912,694 discloses mechanical dolls which are controlled by signals on a recording medium. Over the prior art, this patent has achieved synchronizing at reduced cost.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,825,136 describes a mimetic function simulator. This patent addresses the xe2x80x9cadequate number of control devicesxe2x80x9d limitation of prior art. It also addresses the complexity, space, and size of prior methods of controlling facial muscles. Control methods are broad, using tape recorder, keyboard, and modem.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,013,276 describes the use of thermal motors (composed of Nitinol). However, motion is simple and random. This invention described in this patent is not directly programmable, nor does it use a large number of degrees of freedom.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,270,480 describes a toy acting in response to a Midi signal. This invention is about the conversion of an instrument playing signals into drive signals.
U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,289,273 and 5,142,803 disclose an animated character system with real-time control. This patent has a complex implementation, but it does mention xe2x80x9cdirect drive vs indirect drivexe2x80x9d as a method of controlling joints. One example is the direct drive control at the shoulder (FIGS. 10a, 10b), and also for the head (FIG. 8a), and for the wrist. Additionally, it mentions the use of surgical tubing as a way to counteract gravity.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,394,766 describes a robotic human torso that takes advantage of hydraulic rotary actuators, and also linear actuators. The improvement over the prior art is in the size and number of degrees of freedom that can be implemented. This patent describes an industrial implementation. What the present invention accomplishes over this patent is that it
Uses conventional and readily (commercially) available parts, and is
Simpler and
Cheaper.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,493,185 discloses a method for animating motor driven puppets and the like and apparatus implementing the method. This patent mentions prior art as unsuited to effectively process the control signals.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,623,428 describes a method for developing computer animation that covers the underlying technology in modern computer animation: forward kinematics and reverse kinematics.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,655,945 describes a video and radio-controlled moving and talking device. This references signals carried on VCR and TV and an expanded use of the invention specifically referred to as xe2x80x9ccustom skeletal structurexe2x80x9d linkages, a plurality of electric motors. The reference describes the use of a computer to integrate sound waves to send responses to a transmitter.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,696,892 describes a method and apparatus for providing animation in a three dimensional computer generated virtual world using a succession of textures derived from temporarily related source images. This reflects the state of the art in how some of the computer animation today gets accomplished. Claims are for incorporating real world objects into 3D computer graphics.
It is an object of this invention to provide a simple articulated module for the joints of a mannequin.
It is an object of this invention to provide a simple servo-articulated module for the joints of an animated mannequin.
It is an object of this invention to provide an inexpensive servo-articulated module for the joints of an animated mannequin.
It is an object of this invention to provide a method for preparing a choreograph that can be used by those skilled in computer applications for activating the joints of a mannequin.
It is an object of this invention to provide a simple method for computer control of a choreograph for activating the joints of a mannequin.
These objects and others that will become apparent from the following specification are achieved by a servo-articulated module having doubly articulated means for attaching a first portion of a robotic assembly to a second portion of said assembly, said first portion being rotatable with respect to said second portion about a first axis substantially perpendicular to a first axis of the first portion and about a second axis substantially coaxial with said first axis
These objects are further achieved by a robot arm, adapted to be arranged on a torso of a human mannequin figure, which stimulates the movements of a human arm, the torso having a central longitudinal torso axis and the arm having a central longitudinal arm axis which in the extended position, comprising in combination:
(a) a shoulder portion having articulated means for attaching the arm to the torso, the arm being rotatable with respect to the torso about a shoulder axis substantially perpendicular to the central torso axis;
(b) an upper arm portion having doubly articulated means for attaching the upper arm portion to the shoulder portion, the upper arm portion being rotatable with respect to the shoulder portion about a first axis substantially perpendicular to the central arm axis and about a second axis substantially coaxial with the central arm axis;
(c) a forearm portion having double articulated means for attaching the forearm portion to the upper arm portion, the forearm portion being rotatable with respect to the upper arm portion about a third axis substantially perpendicular to the central arm axis and about a fourth axis substantially coaxial with the central arm axis; and
(d) a hand portion having articulated means for attaching the hand portion to the forearm portion, the hand portion being rotatable with respect to the forearm portion about a fifth axis substantially perpendicular to the central arm axis.
The articulated means of the hand portion may be doubly articulated and the hand portion may be further rotatable with respect to the forearm portion about a sixth axis which is substantially perpendicular to the central arm axis and to the fifth axis.
In addition, the invention provides a robot leg, adapted to be arranged on a torso of a human mannequin figure, which simulates the movements of a human leg, the torso having a central longitudinal torso axis and the leg having a central longitudinal leg axis when in the extended position, comprising in combination:
(a) a hip portion having articulated means for attaching the leg to the torso, the leg being rotatable with respect to the torso about a hip axis substantially perpendicular to the central torso axis;
(b) an upper leg portion having doubly articulated means for attaching the upper leg portion to the hip portion, the upper leg portion being rotatable with respect to the hip portion about a first axis substantially perpendicular to the central leg axis and about a second axis substantially coaxial with the central leg axis;
(c) a lower leg portion having doubly articulated means for attaching the lower leg portion to the upper leg portion, said lower leg portion being rotatable with respect to the upper leg portion about a third axis substantially perpendicular to the central leg axis and about a fourth axis substantially coaxial with the central leg axis; and
(d) a foot portion having articulated means for attaching the foot portion to the lower leg portion, said foot portion being rotatable with respect to the lower leg portion about a fifth axis substantially perpendicular to the central leg axis.
The articulated means of the foot portion may be doubly articulated and the foot portion may be further rotatable with respect to the lower leg portion about a sixth axis which is substantially perpendicular to the central lower leg axis and to the fifth axis.
The invention also provides a robot head, neck and torso of a human mannequin figure, which simulate the movements of a human head, neck and torso, the robot head, neck and torso having a first common substantially central longitudinal axis and comprising, in combination:
(a) a head portion having doubly articulated means for attaching a head portion to a neck portion, the head portion being rotatable with respect to the neck portion about a second axis substantially perpendicular to the first axis and about a third axis substantially coaxial with the first central longitudinal axis;
(b) a neck portion having a spinal section, to which is attached a spinal section of a torso portion; and
(c) a torso portion having a spinal section, which comprises:
(i) an upper section having doubly articulated means being rotatable about a fourth axis substantially coaxial with the first central longitudinal axis and being rotatable about a fifth axis substantially perpendicular to the first axis; and
(ii) a lower section having doubly articulated means being rotatable about a sixth axis substantially coaxial with the central longitudinal axis and being rotatable about a seventh axis substantially perpendicular to the first axis.
The invention also provides an animated human mannequin figure, which simulates the movements of a human body, having a head, neck, torso, arms and legs and which comprises the articulated joints of the invention.
Preferably, a method for creating choreographs for activating the servo-articulated modules comprises:
(a) running a graphical animation program of the desired action;
(b) generating output in the program""s proprietary format;
(c) transforming said output into an ASCII file format;
(d) inputting the file from step (c) together with a file having mannequin specifications into a program that transforms the choreograph instructions into a compressed binary output file for operation by a run program.
A method for operating choreographs for activating the servo-articulated modules, thereby animating a mannequin in a desired manner, comprises:
(e) inputting the compressed binary file of choreograph instructions from step (d) into a run program;
(f) the run program output being to an interface, preferably a serial interface;
(g) the interface interfacing with pulse width modulation controller circuitry;
(h) the pulse width modulation controller circuitry controlling the mannequin and causing it to execute the choreograph instructions; and
(i) a power supply to supply power to the servos in the mannequin.
The invention further provides a method for creating choreographs for activating the servo-articulated modules, which comprises:
(A) using a spreadsheet program to develop a choreograph;
(B) outputting the choreograph in a spreadsheet file;
(C) transforming the spreadsheet file into an ASCII input file;
(D) inputting the file from step (C) together with a file having mannequin specifications into a program that transforms the choreograph instructions into a compressed binary output file for operation by a run program.
A method for operating choreographs created by the method described in the preceding paragraph in order to activate the servo-articulated modules, thereby animating a mannequin in a desired manner, comprises:
(E) inputting the compressed binary file of choreograph instructions from step (D) into a run program;
(F) the run program output being to an interface, preferably a serial interface;
(G) the interface interfacing with pulse width modulation controller circuitry;
(H) the pulse width modulation controller circuitry controlling the mannequin and causing it to execute the choreograph instructions; and
(I) a power supply to supply power to the servos in the mannequin.
The animated mannequin of the invention comprises limbs, i.e., arms and legs, and the neck, head and torso, all of which are animated by the basic animation parts. The basic animation parts that are used to configure the mannequin of the invention are servos, servo housings, rotational connectors, straight connectors, and hinge connectors. These are described below.
Limbs and Neck, Head and Torso
Limbs may be constructed from a stick framework made of a light wood such as basswood. Other choices of materials for the framework are plastic and metal. The plastic may be either a thermoplastic or a thermoset resin and may have reinforcing fibers incorporated therein, e.g., glass, carbon, graphite, and/or boron fibers. The design objective is to achieve rigidity and strength while minimizing weight. The head, neck and torso may be similarly constructed.
Servos
Servos are readily available in the commercial hobby market today. There are several manufacturers, each with several products and features to suit different needs and applications. The choice of which servo to use in this invention is based on the degree of power, speed and strength required at each joint, and also dictated by the amount of weight that needs to be put in motion. Representative of suppliers are Futaba and Hobbico.
Servo Housings
The servo housings have been specially designed to accomplish several objectives. One is to provide a way to attach the limbs to the servos. Limbs can be attached to the servo housings by glue or by some type of screw attachmentxe2x80x94depending upon the choice of materials. The servo housings also allow for the easy mounting of a choice of servos. The third objective of the servo housing is to allow for the rotational spline of the servos to be exposed and accessible for attachment of a hinge connector. In addition, the servo housing may provide a pivot attachment at the opposite side of the spline to aid in support of the hinge connector.
Rotational Connectors
These are modular units that mount to a limb such as a forearm. They can be mounted by glue or screws. The rotational connector has a cylindrical hole which is substantially the same size in diameter as that of the cylindrical rod component of the hinge connector. The rotational connector will freely rotate about the cylindrical rod, but will provide rigid support in all other directions. Optionally, the rotational connectors can make use of bearings to facilitate rotational motion.
Hinge Connectors
The hinge connector is designed to accomplish several objectives. It provides a connection point to a servo by way of a mount that houses a control arm. A second connection is supported by a cylindrical rod about which the rotational connector rotates and also provides an attachment point for a second control arm. The control arm comes in a variety of sizes and is a piece that typically accompanies a commercial servo. The rationale for using the control arm in the mounting capabilities in that it mates with the rotational spline of the servo. The spline connection of a servo will vary by size of servo and by manufacturer.
The hinge connection connects two (2) servos whose axis of motion are perpendicular to each other. In addition, the hinge connector will connect to the servo housing described above at the pivot attachment.
One other type of hinge connector, a straight version, used at the shoulder, wrist and ankle accomplishes a connection to a servo at one end, and a fixed connection to a limb at the other end. Another type of hinge connector, an L-shaped, or right angle version, used at the shoulder, wrist and ankle accomplishes a connection to a servo at one end, and a fixed connection to a limb at the other end straight connector.
Materials
Initially, the servo housings have been made of wood, and the hinge connectors have been made of brass. The preferred materials for these components is molded plastic of the type described above.
Graphical Animation Software
There are several software products on the market today that are tools used by graphical artists to produce animation for use and display on a computer or other media. This invention takes advantages of those tools that are used to animate a human figure (or other character). In the process of producing a two dimensional animated segment (known as rendering), certain aspects of a figure associated with position and rotation in three dimensions are managed and saved. This information is captured by this invention and translated to actual positions of the mannequin. Several of these positions can be used to develop the choreograph. One such software product used is Poser 2 by MetaCreations.
Output in Vendor""s Proprietary Format
This is the three dimensional information that is produced by software such as Poser 2. The capabilities to save segments of motion are already provided by this product. This invention is only interested in the positional information related to joint rotation. Other graphical information such as that regarding surface characteristics, colors, and other information can be discarded as they do not relate to the mannequin.
Program Developed to Transform Vendor""s Proprietary Data Format into ASCII Input File
One program is used to interpret the output of a graphical animation package (as described above) and to translate that into the ASCII input file. The program can be implemented in a variety of languages and environments to suit the user""s requirements.
Spreadsheet Program (e.g., Excel) Used to Develop Choreograph
A spreadsheet program, such as Excel, has been used to develop the information for a choreograph. This is accomplished by assigning a column for each joint and a row for each step in time. The row/column format is a very useful tool in laying out the relative positions of motion of each joint. When completed, output can be generated in a comma delimited format which can be used subsequently by the programs of the invention.
Choreograph from Spreadsheet File
This is the comma-delimited file generated by the spreadsheet program as described above. These files may be used to represent segments of motion which can be incorporated later into more complex choreographs. The method for naming and storing these segments is entirely up to the choreographer.
Program Developed to Transform Spreadsheet File into ASCII Input File
This program will read the comma delimited file generated by the spreadsheet program and translate it into the ASCII input file.
ASCII Input File
This file describes the relative rotational movements of each joint of the mannequin. Other information is also included in the file such as the speed (timing between each set of movement), the scaling factor, and the number of times to repeat each movement.
File with Mannequin Specifications
This file is used to describe the actual implementation of the mannequin. It will correlate the reference code (used by the above programs) of each of the joints of the mannequin to the actual physical port used for conveying the electrical signals. In addition, each mannequin may be implemented differently, and not all mannequins may make use of all the joints. In some implementations, only the motion of an arm may be implemented and therefore only a small number of joints may need to be programmed. Other information in this specification includes the actual physical implementation of the servos in each joint and the associated range (minimum and maximum position) of motion. In addition, information about the initial starting position or rest position is contained in the specification.
Workbench Program
This program transforms the choreograph instructions, as described above, into a compressed binary file which is used by the xe2x80x9cBossxe2x80x9d program for operation of the mannequin(s). It converts the reference codes of each of the joints into the actual physical port used to send the electrical signals.
Choreograph Instructionxe2x80x94Binary File
This file contains information used by the Boss program to operate the mannequin. The file describes each of the relative positions of all the joints to be moved sequentially in time. It also includes information about the timing of each step, as well as the number of times to repeat segments of motion. It is designed to be a very compact file so that it will fit into a variety of implementations including the use of a PC running either DOS or Windows, a MAC or a Java program or even a programmed PIC chip that can read these instructions which could be stored on a ROM chip.
Boss Program
This program is a simple program that is designed to read a set of choreograph instructions, from the binary file described above, and write digital instructions to a device. The device can be written to via a serial interface or, alternatively, other implementations such as via a parallel interface, or a specialized card that can be installed on a motherboard in a PC. The method of access can be changed easily and is accomplished by either two (2) techniques common in the industry: writing to a port, or writing to memory.
The Boss program will read the choreograph instructions and generate output, as described above, sequentially and with the prescribed time intervals.
Serial Interface
The serial interface is usually provided at the back end of a PC. By means of a connector this can be wired to some circuitry that performs pulse width modulation.
Pulse Width Modulation (PWM) Servo Controller Circuitry
Pulse width modulation is the method used to control the position of servos. This capability has been established for a long time in the industry. Today, there are several manufacturers offering various packages to accomplish it. The current implementation uses the circuitry provided by Scott Edwards Electronics, Inc. called xe2x80x9cMini SSC II (Serial Servo Controller). This circuitry reads the digital output from a serial interfacexe2x80x94connected by a phone wirexe2x80x94and generates the pulse width modulation signal corresponding to the designated port number which attached to the servo, and the position of the servo.
Other suppliers include Pontech, whose product, the SV203B/C Servo Motor Controller Board, provides similar capabilities.
Power Supply
Power supply to the mannequin for operation of the servos can be approximately 5-6 volts. However, other voltages or power supply configurations can be chosen based on the requirements of the servos. As an example, power can be provided by a battery pack of four (4) 1.2 volt (1.5 volt) cells, or by a 5.0-6.0 V DC converter operated by standard AC current, available from several suppliers in the market.
Mannequin with (n) Servos Choreographed in Motion
The mannequin can be configured with several servos to achieve the desired artistic expression in the choreographs. There may be commercial situations in which only a portion of the mannequin is animated such as an arm or leg. One fairly complete implementation of a mannequin is described below.
Arms
A single arm is configured with a total of seven servos. At the shoulder are three servos configured in such a way to allow motions along three axis: sideways, forward and backward, and rotating along the upper arm. At the elbow are two servos to allow motion around two axis: flexing of the arm, and rotation of the forearm. At the wrist are two servos to allow the wrist to flex in two planes.
Legs
A leg can be configured in the same way as an arm with the joints at the hip, knee and ankle.
Spine
The spine can be configured with several joints. Each joint can be configured with up to two servos giving the ability to choreograph motion in two out of three possible directions: bending forward and backward, bending sideways, or rotating. By using at least two joints in the spine, it is possible to achieve almost all positions.
Neck
The neck can be configured in the same way as the spine.